Benefit brownies

What's your favorite beverage? I'm amazed at the plethora of flavors, colors, degrees of carbonation or alcohol, in soft and hard beverages alike. We don't just prefer cola over other sodas -- we have brand loyalty and will swear that they taste different. How many ways are there to order your coffee at Starbucks? Hundreds.

I'm watching one of the cats pick unenthusiastically at the water dish. He only likes running water, and is very put out that we fixed the bathtub leak. Even our pets have a sense of entitlement and an expectation of luxury.

Can you imagine never experiencing clean water? I can't. I try, but honestly, the closest I can come is to remember feeling thirsty on backpacking trips and hoping the next stream would be clean enough to drink. We never actually had to drink dirty water. I don't know how thirsty I would have to get to do it.

Yet millions of people, only different from me because of where they happen to have been born, will never know what clean water tastes like. They will never know abundance of any kind.

I have a friend who started a charity in the dump in Managua, Nicaragua, to get families living there into some kind of housing, kids into school, and nutritious food for all. They offer micro-loans, and dozens of families have started small businesses and moved out of the dump. Yes, they actually lived in the dump. I wondered at first where they could possibly find food and water. Apparently food is plentiful when you live life as a scavenger, but water is more difficult. They could sometimes collect rain water. The kids would actually go and swim in a "pond" created by raw sewage flowing directly into the dump. Blessings on you and your work, Ron Hockley, as you go beyond talking about Jesus and pursue acting like him.

Here's an idea -- next time you pick up a coffee or a soft drink and get coins back as change, set the change aside. At the end of a year, gather your change, run it to a bank or a coinstar machine, and donate the funds to provide drinking water for someone. Charity: Water is a good one, or of course Ron's Neo Fund. With the advances in technology allowing us to produce clean water from dirty, we have the potential to make such an impact!